Bottle packaging machine



March 6, 1.945. L CATTONAR m v2,371,026

BOTTLE PACKAGING MACHINE Original Filed March 26, 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet l f' hm I- :Il INVENToRs AMmh 6,1945.

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J. cA-rToNAR Erm.

BOTTLE PACKAGING MACHINE 4 sheets-sheet 2 lle/'r ATTORNEY March 6, 1945.

J. CATTONAR ETAL BOTTLE APACKAGING MACHINE original Filed March 26, 1'941 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 March 6, 1945. J. CATTONAR ErAL 2,371,026

Y BOTTLE PACKAGING MACHINE Original Filed March 26, 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 e/rATTO R N EY Patented Mar. 6, 1945 BOTTLE PACKAGING MACHINE John Cattonar, Jamaica, and George Olm, As-

toria, Long Island, N. Y., assignors to Edward Ermold Co., New York, N. Y., a. corporation of New York Original application March 26, 1941, Serial No. 385.240. Divided and this application February 6, 1942, Serial No. 429,744

7 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in packaging machines. More specifically, the present invention embo-dies improvements in the packaging machine described in our application for U. S. Letters Patent, Serial No. 218,214, filed July 8, 1938, now Patent No. 2,277,688, dated March, 31, 1942, which described the loading of bottles or jars or similar containers into boxes or cases or crates, having compartments to receive the bottles or containers.

This is a division of our application Serial No. 385,240, filed March 26, 1941, issued as U. S. Letters Patent No.' 2,332,058 on Octo'ber 19, 1943.

The invention consists of a system of grouping a charge of bottles consisting of one, two or more rows of bottles by means of shutters located at one .end of said grouping device and means to actuate them simultaneously; pressure building members, next to the shutters and actuated by the same mechanism; a bottle stopper at the other end of said grouping device and its motion deriving means; slidable side guides located between the two ends of said grouping device and advancing partly into the center of the row of bottles farthest from a bottle slider; and a stopper mounted on the bottle slider and advancing partly into the row of bottles nearest to said bottle slider; all in combination with a series of gripping devices so arranged, above the top of the bottles as to correspond with the arrangement of and the number of bottles in the charge being grouped below.

The invention also provides means to group a charge of bottles made up of one single row or a multiple number of rows or tiers of bottles on the bottle grouping station in such a way as to prevent the bottles from exerting any pressure on each o-ther, set the charge of bottles as a unit in the proper position to be pushed onto a trap floor, and at the same time shut 01T a conveyor placed adjacent to and out of the grouping station and feeding to the machine bottles in one or more rows in such a way that all rows of bottles on said feed conveyor are shut off simultaneously and without interfering in any way with the charge of bottles being grouped by the grouping device on the `grouping station, previous to the sliding and successive loading Operation by the bottle slider and by the gripping devi^es respectively.

The invention will be fully described hereinafter and embodiments shown in the drawings which illustrate a convenient arrangement of the novel features entering into our invention, it being understood that it is permissible to make slight changes of detalls to suit manufacturing requirements, without departing from the spiritof the present invention, dened within the scope of the appended claims. Q

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the embodiment of the invention in a preferred way:

Figure 1 shows'a front view of the improved machine with only two double gripping devices shown, although any number of these may be used, so as to suit the number of bottles in the longer or lengthwise rows of the case to be loaded;

Figure 2 shows a top view at about the level of line 2 2 of Figure 1, the position of the bottle slider being in the proper relation to the positio-n of the gripper jaws of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a side elevation along a section taken on line 3 3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 shows a partial, side section taken at line 4 4 of Figure 2; I

Fig. 5 is an enlarged top view taken on line 5 5 of Fig. l and shows the relation Ibetween a series of chutes through which the bottles are being lowered, and the trap floor above them and the spring basket below them, and

Fig. 6 is a front elevation of Fig. 5 taken at line 6 6 of Fig. 5 with the spring basket shown at its upper position in full lines and at its lower position in broken lines.

Referring to the drawings, the machine is contained in a frame work composed of walls I and 2 and cross members 3 and 4. Two large brackets of convenient shape support most of the mechanism on and about the bottle level, being indicated on Vthe lefthand frame I by 5, and on the right hand frame 2 by 6. As seen in Figure 4, cross member 'I connects 5 and 6 and serves also as a guide into which a suitable projection 8a of a trap floor 8 is slidably mounted and covered with a cover 9.

As seen in Figure 2, cam shaft I0 rotates in its bearing II and I2 fastened in the Wall frames I and 2, respectively, and carries a number of cams of which I3 at the left and I4 at the right of equal path impart the necessary motion to a gripper carriage, through rollers I5, followers I6 and levers I'I which rock on shaft I8 fast in frames I and 2. To counteract the weights of the gripper carriage parts and the full bottles beingr handled, a counterweight I9 is bolted to the rear ends of the levers I'I.

As seen in Figures 1 and 3, the levers I1 are connected through links 20 to a cross member 2|, the two ends of which are guided by the flanged body of a rack 22 fast on frame I, and rack 23 fast on frame'Z. On one end of the cross member 2|, one pinion 24 runs on the pin 25 fast on bearings 2 6, which bearings are parts of cross member 2|,- said pinion engages rack 22, and

diametrically opposite engages rack 21; at the ber 2| through adjusting screw 31 connects with one end of the interrupter carrier 38 and through adjusting screw 39 connects with the other end of interrupter carrier 38.

It will be seen from Figure 1 that the interrupter carrier 38 being directly connected with the pinion carrying cross member 2|, will travel up and down a distance equal to the motion imparted to 2| by'cams I3 and I4, follower I6, levers |1, etc. Again the gripper carrier`36 being directly connected to the free racks 21 and 28 will travel up and down at the same time and in the same direction as interrupter carrier 38, but as a speed equal to twice the speed of interrupter carrier 38. The distance between the gripper and interrupter carriers will decrease during their downward travel and correspondingly increase during their upward travel. The dierence in speed of said two carriers is so utilized to operate the gripper jaws as follows:

Gripper carrier 36, Fig. 1, is substantially a cast frame with a long slot in which are slidably mounted blocks 40 which can be shifted by means of set screws 4| in slots 42 of cover plate 43 to match perpendicularly the distance between the center of adjacent bottles in the row or rows being assembled on trap oor 8 below.

A threaded tube 44 is inserted into each block 40 and fastened rigidly to it by nut 45 at one end, namely the upper end, while at its lower end, also threaded, is fastened a frame 46 carrying blocks 41 into which areinserted and to which are fastened, by means of nuts 49, tubes 48 in the same fashion as tubes 44 are fastened to blocks 40 of gripper carrier 36. Also in the same fashion as blocks 46, blocks 41 with tubes 48 can be shifted by means of set screws 58 in slots of frame 46.

The direction at which mocks 41 with tubes ui are shifted is at 90 to the direction at which blocks 40 with tubes 44 are adjusted; the results of this arrangement being that with blocks 40 the desired adjustment is obtained to match the distance between the center of adjacent bottles in the row or rows. While with blocks 41 the desired adjustment is obtained to match the distance between the center of two adjacent rows of bottles of the charge, these being assembled previous to the gripping and loading operations.

To the lower end of tubes 48 are fastened blocks 62 having pins 53 to which gripper jaws 54 are hinged (Figures 1 and 3).

Tension spring 51, of which each end is attached to one jaw 54, urge continuously the two jaws to lock, but the time of the locking (gripping) and opening (releasing) operations depends entirely on the position on which rollers 55 roll -rier 36. As best seen in Figure 1, cross memon the operative faces of key 12 (Fig. 3), the rollers 66 being on pins 66 of jaws 64.

So far, a rigid and direct connection has been described to exist all the way from gripper carrier 36 to gripper jaws 64 and rollers 65.

Inside of tubes 44 and along all their length are inserted slidably. round bars which connect with collars 59, slidably set around tubes 44, by means of screws 68 at a point near their upper end, while at their lower end they connect with threaded collars 6| also by means of screws not shown.

The interrupter carrier 38, similar in construction to gripper carrier 36, carries blocks 63 which also can be shifted by means of set screws 64 in slots 65 of cover plate 66, to match blocks 40 thereabove. Tubes 44 are free to slide in blocks 63 vof carrier 38 and also in threaded collars 6|. Screws 60 of collars 59 and the screw of threaded collars 6| of the round bars inside of tubes 44, are free to run in the wall of tubes 44 along slots 61 above blocks 63 and along othervslots, not shown, below collars 6| respectively.

Between the shoulder of threaded collar 6| and nut 69 there is a loosely locked yoke 10 at each end of which is inserted a round bar 1| which slides on tube 48 and which at its lower end carries key 12 to operate the jaws 54 of the grippers.

It will be observed from Fig. 1, that key 12 has two vertically straight faces and one sloping face between the straight vfaces for each roller to roll on.

The operation of the gripper jaws now becomes apparent:

In their upward travel at the high rate of speed, racks 21 and 28 will take along gripper carrier 36, tubes 44 and 48 and th'eir respective inner bars, jaws 54, keys 12, etc. to a point near the end of their upward travel at which the top face of nuts 69 will hit the lower face of blocks 63 on carrier 38,'which travels at the lower rate of speed. This will cause the rate of speed at which the bars inside of tubes 44 and 48, their relative screws and collars, keys 12, etc. travel, to be retarded, while jaws 54, tubes 44 and 48 and all parts connected therewith continue at the same high rate of speed for the'rest of their upward travel; rollers 55 will therefore run off the lower (opening) face of key 12, over the slope to the upper (locking) straight face, whereby by the action of springs 51, jaws 54 will lock the neck of the bottle therebetween. At this time the upward travel will cease, trap oor 8 will shift and with it the bottle supporting strips 16 from under the bottles, and the gripping devices with the bottles locked will start their downward travel toward the case below.

In their downward travel again all parts and the bottles will travel at the high rate of speed with racks 21 and 28 until the lower face of collars 59 will hit the upper face of blocks 63 of carrier 38 which travels at low speed; this will again retard the speed of the bars inside of the tubes, their relative screws, collars and key 12, while the tubes 44 and 48, jaws 54 and all parts connected therewith will continue at the high rate of speed for the rest of their downward travel; rollers 55 will run off the upper (locking) face of key 12, up the slope to the lower (opening) face; jaws 54 will be spread apart and the bottles will be released.

Compression springs 13 on bars 1| act as shock absorbers for the bottles; indicators 14 and 15 point to marks on guides 29 and racks 21 and 28, respectively, and indicate the dierent heights at which the carriers 38 and 38 should be set in order to grip and release at the proper time bottles of different heights.

To conveniently group a charge consisting of one or more rows of bottles previous to the loading operation a bottle feed conveyor A equipped with two endless chains 11, of the conventional flat top type, is shown in Figure 1. Chains 11 wind around driver sprockets.\18 at one end and around idler sprockets at the other end, not shown, as well known. Sprockets 18 are driven in the conventional way, not shown, with roller chains and sprockets. Bottles are fed by the conveyor line coming from the labeling or other machines in the production line of the plant, to our conveyor A in one or more rows, two rows will be handled by the arrangement shown by the drawings, and chains 11 will convey them until the first bottle inthe rows will stop at bottle stopper 19 (Figure l),

At this point the flow of bottles on the conveyor is shut off and out as follows:

Cam 80 on cam shaft |0, imparts motion to yoke 88, through roller 8|, follower lever 82, rocking on shaft 83, link 84, arms 85 and 85a both pivoted on pin 86 of bracket 81 which is fastened on frame At the upper part of yoke 88 are fastened longitudinal guiding strips 89 and 90 which serve to guide the bottles in straight lines when they are up with yoke 88 and bottles are fed in front of slider |33 previous to the grouping and pushing operations.

Fastened at each side of yoke 88 are bearing brackets 9| to which are attached the end of the short arm of levers 92 which are pivotcd on pins 93 rocking also one in bracket 81 and the other on member 3 of the framework (Figure 3) The end of the long arm of levers 92 through links 94 connect to an extension. through bracket 5, of shutters 95 and 96.

Shutters 95 and 96 each consist of a casting slidably mounted on and carry a box shaped member 91 into which slides bar 98 at the end of which are on one, gate 99 and on the other gate |00 above chains 11 of conveyor A (Figure 3). At the same end of bars 98 are fastened bars |0| and |02 on which swiveling shoes |03 and |04 are set in (Figure 2.). On the side of box shaped members 91 are fastened pins |05, and on bars 98 are fastened pins |06 tension springs |01 being hooked on the two pins so that bars 98 will be urged continuously forward until pins |06 abut against boxes 91, with the result that when shutters 95 and 96 move towards each other to shut off the flow of bottles, during part of their motion, gates 99, |00 shut the flow and shoes |03, |04 reach the side of the bottles. During the rest of the motion, shutters 95, 96 and boxes 91 continue their closing motion along bars 98 (Figures l and 2), extending springs |01 and causing them to exert a certain desired amount of pressure, on one or more bottles between them, through pins |06, bars 98, |0I, |02, etc.

At the far end of shutter 95 (Figure 2), a cross bar |06 is fastened, which carries three side guides |09, ||0, of which the central one |09 slides on guide I2 fastened on trap floor cover 9. These side guides will move forward against the bottles, with shutter casting 95 and will then stop with their forward ends in the spaces between the four central bottles.

Slightly before this point of the machine cycle, the bottles, being yet in two closed lines, will/ have to be freed from exerting any pressure on each other and at the same time they will have to be aligned as a single charge unit with the gripping devices before being pushed by slider |33 to trap floor 8 previous to the loading operation. This is accomplished by retracting bottle stopper 19 (Figure 1) in the following manner: Cross member 2| carries stud ||3 with roller |4 which runs in track of vertical cam I5 which cam swings on stud IIB of bracket ||1 fastened on frame 2. To the lower end of vertical cam ||5 is attached link ll'which through stud ||9 connects the cam to bar |20 of bottle/l stopper 19 which is slidably mounted in bracket |2| bolted on top of 6. In the upward travel of member 2|, roller ||4 in cam ||5 will at the determined time swing the cam which will retract bottle stopper 19 of a necessary amount to line up the charge of bottles with the gripping devices. Other side guides |22 are provided which are stationary and fastened on cover 9 which will partition the bottles when on the trap oor 8. These are shown and described in our Patent No. 2,277,688, to which reference is made.

The charge of bottles will now be handled by slider |33. In Figure 2, cam |23 on shaft I0 imparts motion to slider |33 through roller |24, follower |25 rocking on shaft 83, arm lever |21, levers |28, links |29 and studs |30. Arm |21 and levers |28 are fastened `on shaft |3| which oscillates in bearings |32 fastened on cross member 3 of the framework. At the beginning of the forward travel of bottle slider |33, which is slidably mounted on top of bracket 5 with cover |34, and on bracket 6 with cover |35,'stopper |36 on the end of the long arm of lever |31 goes also in action in the center of the row of bottles -nearest to slider |33 to separate the half row near gate 99 from the hall row near stopper 19. At the time that bottles are grouped for the charge in front of slider |33, the short arm of lever |31, which swings on stud |38 fast on body `at the left from advancing too far to the right v/ith chain 11 for a perfect pushing operation.

To a projection of bottle slider |33 is attached a stud |58 with roller |59 which runs into slot |60 or trap floor 8; this slot is so shaped that on the return stroke of bottle slider |33, roller |59 will cause the trap floor to be shifted to the left and with it the bottle supporting strips from under the bottles.

The progressive order at which the several operations, from grouping to gripping, are performed, may now be followed: y

Bottles in two rows are fed to conveyor A be-v tween gates 99, |00 and stopper 19, gates 99, |00 shut off the how of bottles, shoes |03, |04 hold with spring pressure the head of the bottle ow out of the charge, longitudinal guiding strips 89 and 90 are lowered, side guides |09, ||0, advance partly into the row of bottles farthest from slider |33, stopper 19 is retracted to free the fbottles and line up the charge, stopper |36 advances partly into the center of the row of bottles nearest to slider |33, the charge of bottles being pushed over to trap floor 8 while the gripping devices still on their way up will pause temporarily before locking the neck of all the bottles in the charge. A

To dispose safely of a bottle damaged or defective for reasons not controllable by the machine, the timing of the different motion imparting mechanism has been so arranged as to have the spring basket, which is designed to guide each bottle of the charge into its own cell in the case and to straighten the partition thereof if necessary, enter the cells at the time that the bottle supporting strips 16 are shifted from under the bottles. This leaves a considerable open space between the bottom of the trap oor and top of the spring basket at an unwanted time, and if this space is left open, not only the damaged bottle is liable to fall, hit the top of the spring and bars of the basket and rest there, but also all the bottles in the charge being lowered by the gripping devices are likely to hit the top of the walls of their assigned place in the spring basket. Breakage will result and the value of such a machine impaired. To eliminate such happenings, a stationary frame of chutes is provided which offers a vertical, direct and complete communication between the bottom of trap floor strips 16 and the inside of the spring basket sections leaving at the same time the spring basket free in its up and down travel.

The spring basket as shown in Figures 5 and 6 is a frame of bars forming a number of squares equal to the number of bottles in.. the charge being handled, and over the bars forming the squares, leaf springs are folded which are double as indicated by |4| if they are mountedbetween two adjacent squares, and single as indicated by |42 if they are mounted on the external walls of the basket. A locking device is provided to hold these springs in their proper place, consisting of cast bars |43 with blocks |44, so cross slotted that they fit over the edges of the springs and over the corners of four adjacent squares, these bars at their ends near brackets 5 and 6 are fastened with a pin |45 which goes across them and through the outer frame of the spring basket. The entire basket rests and is fastened on brackets |46. A cam on cam shaft I6, by means of roller, follower lever, not shown, fast on shaft 83, levers |41 also fast on shaft 83 and rollers |48 in track of brackets |46 impart motion to bracket |46, which will travel up and down on vertical shafts |49 and |50, fast on cross member 1 on top and on other brackets, not shown at the bottom, carrying the spring basket.

As seen in Figures 4, 5 and 6, the frame of the chutes consists of an outer frame |5| fastened with pins |52 to cross member 1 on the rear and below trap floor 8, and with pins |53 to bar |54 in the front, also below trap floor 6. Across the long sides of the frame |5|, connecting them, and parallel to bottle supporting strips 16, are cast bars |55 with blocks |56 which occupy a, position above the four corners of four adjacent squares of the spring basket, or the two corners of two adjacent squares of the spring basket according to their location in respect to it. Blocks |56 carry fastened to them vertical bars |51 of which one fits into every corner of the ,spring basket. Their length is suflicient to reach inside of the spring basket when the spring basket is at its lowest position of travel, the distance between each other, along the Wall of the basket square is less than the diameter of the bottle being handled, and their location is such that it permits free movement to the spring basket.

The result is that free and continued passages or cells are provided between the trap iloor and the spring basket for the bottles being lowered and at the same time no bottle can fall out between bars |51. The motion of the spring basket is not interfered with and any damageor defective bottle will have its way open and will be guided to the cell assigned to it in the case by the stationary chute and by the springs of the spring basket which at this time will already have entered the partitioned cells of the case.

It has been seen that the improvements hereinabove set forth consist of the combination of a grouping device to group a charge of bottles consisting of one row of bottles, two rows of bottles, three rows of bottles, etc., with a gripping device substantially as described and claimed in our Patent No. 2,332,058, to grip whatever charge of bottles one, two or more rows, being assembled by said grouping device.

It has been shown furthermore that the grouping device set forth consists of shutter means and means to actuate them simultaneously; pressure building means adjacent to said shutters and actuated by the same mechanism; said mentioned means being located at one end of the grouping station in proximity to a conveyor feeding the machine, bottle stopper at the other end of the grouping station and motion deriving incans; slidable side guides advancing partlyinto the center of the row of bottles farthest from the bottle slider, and a stopper mounted on' ajlbottle slider and advancing partly into the center of the row of bottles nearest to the sliders i.

The invention also includes a] frame of chutes, located between a trap floor and a spring basket, including the frame of chutes projper and the mottom of the spring basket inlrelation to the trap floor. The end of the springs'in/the spring basket are into the cells of thebox or case at the time the bottle supportingstripjs ofthe trap oor are shifted from under the bottles.

From the foregoing it is believed that the construction and advantages cf thein'lvention may be readily understood by those-skilled in the art without further description, it being borne in mind that numerous changes may be made in the details disclosed without departing vfrom the spirit of the invention as set out in the following claims:

What is claimed is: i

l. In a bottle packaging machine, a grouping device including the combination of a multiple row feeder for bottles, means shutting off said multiple row feeder after setting a charge of bottles in position as a unit charge, pressure building means formed as part of the shutting off means, means -pushing said unit charge of bottles into a direction at right angles to the direction of said bottles when fed by the multiple row feeder, a stop member, and means for retracting said stop member at a predetermined time during the cycle of the machine.

, 2. In a bottle packaging machine, a grouping device including the combination of a multiple row feed conveyor, gate members to shut off the multiple row flow of bottles of the feed conveyor, a retractable stop member spaced from said gate members, the distance between said gate mem bers and said retractable stop member, before it is retracted, being substantially equal to the length of the rows of bottles, when contacting each other, to be loaded into a' case, and forming a charge, means for retracting said stop member at a predetermined time during the cycle of the machine, a horizontally movable slider along the length of the rows of bottles in the charge assembled in the grouping device for pushing said charge of bottles at right angle to the traveling direction of the bottles, and separator guides movable between the bottles of said rows to separate the bottles during the pushing operation to enable the bottles to be gripped and loaded.

3. In a bottle packaging machine, a grouping device including the combination of a multiple row feed conveyor, gate members to shut off the multiple row flow of bottles of the feed conveyor, a. retractable stop member spaced from said gate members, the distance between said gate members and said retractable stop member, before it is retracted, being substantially equal to the length of the rowl of bottles, when contacting each other to be loaded into a case, and forming a charge, means for retracting said stop member at a predetermined time during the cycle of the machine, pressure building means formed as part of the gate members, and a horizontally movable slider along the length of the rows of bottles in the charge assembled in the grouping de vice for pushing said charge of bottles at right angles to the traveling direction of the bottles.

4. In a bottle packaging machine having a vertically operating gripping mechanism, a grouping device comprising a multiple row feeder for bottles, horizontally operating means shutting off said multiple row feeder after setting a charge of bottles in off position as a unit, said shutting off operation taking place without interfering with the bottles of said unit, pressure building means formed as part of the shutting off means, means for releasing said pressure building means, a stop member for limiting the movement of a unit of bottles after said pressure building means have been released, a separator for dividing said unit of bottles, means for retracting the stop member, means for retracting the separator, a trap oor, means for pushing said divided unit of bottles over to and upon the trap floor, and means, operative after said bottles have been gripped by the gripping mechanism, to shift said trap floor to permit the bottles to be lowered by said gripping mechanism.

5. In a bottle packaging machine, a grouping device having two ends for grouping a charge of bottles, a conveyor for supplying bottles to one end of the grouping device, shutters for the bottles, pressure building members formed as part of the grouping device, next to the shutters for holding with pressure, a. number of bottles, a mechanically retractable bottle stopper at the other end of the grouping device, a bottle slider, slidable guides, means'for advancing said guides partly into the center of the row of bottles furthest from the bottle slider, a separator mounted on the bottle slider and advancing partly into the center of the row of bottles nearest the bottle slider, means for moving said bottle-slider, and means retracting said separator during the movement of the bottle slider.

6. In a bottle packaging machine having a conveyor for feeding bottles, a grouping device comprising a multiple row feeder for bottles, horizontally operating means shutting off said mulltiple row feeder after setting a charge of bottles into a position as a unit, said shutting off operation taking place without interfering with the bottles as a unit, a bottle slider, a stationary guide for said bottle slider, a pin on saidguide, means for moving said bottle slider to and fro, a center separator on said bottle slider comprising a pivoted lever with unequal arms, a stopper upon the longer arm of the lever, and a spring acting upon said longer arm, said stopper separating a row of bottles into two parts upon the forward movement of said bottle slider for preventing one half of the row from converging too far in the direction of its travel, said short arm of the lever being retracted when striking said pin on the return movement of the bottle slider.

7. In a bottle packaging machine, the combination of a grouping device including a conveyor forming a multiple row feeder for bottles, horizontally operating means shutting off said multiple row feeder after setting a charge of bottles in position as a unit, said shuttingA off operation taking place without interfering with the bottles of said unit, pressurebuilding means formed as part of the shutting off means, gripping devices, a trap floor, bottle supporting strips thereon, a stopper in the path of the bottles being fed by the conveyor, and means for retracting said stopper to release the pressure of the bottles upon each other, and thereby line up the charge of bottles ready for movement to the gripping devices and bottle supporting strips on said trap floor.

JOHN CA'I'IONAR. GEORGE OLM. 

